A group of Morinville residents wants the province to investigate the way the town uses photo radar.
A group of town residents dissatisfied with Morinville's photo radar program aired their grievances last week in an information package sent to Morinville RCMP, the Alberta solicitor general, Alberta Justice and local media outlets. The package cites a number of concerns about the program, all of which have previously been aired before council, and calls for official investigations of it by police and the province.
There are a lot of folks who are unhappy with photo radar, said group spokesperson James O'Brien, and they've been waiting for months to get proper answers to their questions.
"When you don't get questions answered, and your problems remain unresolved for a lengthy period of time, you go up the ladder," he said.
The group, which O'Brien said has about four active members, alleged that the town's photo radar contractor, Independent Traffic Services Ltd. (ITS), was not following provincial guidelines for automated traffic enforcement.
"These guys should not be making money off the backs of the citizens of Morinville by doing unlawful things," O'Brien said.
The town was clearly using photo radar as a cash cow, O'Brien continued, as almost all of the money from it was going to capital reserves and the Morinville Community Cultural Centre.
"They keep saying it's not a cash cow, it's for safety," he said. "It looks good in print, but it's not true."
The town has heard these concerns, said Mayor Lloyd Bertschi, and is doing a full review of traffic safety and photo radar later this year.
But calling photo radar a cash cow is simply "folly," he said.
"I'd like nothing better than to collect nothing from photo radar," he said, but there are still people speeding in Morinville. "If people don't like it, stop speeding through our town!"
Many allegations
In its information package, the group alleges that ITS and the Morinville RCMP were not following the province's guidelines for photo radar, and that the solicitor general, by giving them a passing grade in a recent audit, was not enforcing them. They call on the solicitor general to investigate ITS, Alberta Justice to investigate the solicitor general and the RCMP to investigate themselves.
O'Brien said the town's third quarter report on photo radar suggests that, out of the 20 sites it monitored, ITS spent about 40 per cent of its time (and made 39 per cent of its tickets) at a single site on Cardiff Road, and appeared to spend no time at 10 others – including some school and playground zones.
"It looks like they're only monitoring areas that give them money," he said.
ITS did in fact monitor those 10 sites, said Debbie Oyarzun, the town's chief administrative officer, but the firm didn't note any coverage in its report because it didn't catch any speeders (as that's what the solicitor general cares about).
"There was no one speeding, so there is no record of them being there in the report," Oyarzun said.
O'Brien's group also alleges that ITS had not reported the results of its activities to the level of detail required by the province. They also allege that ITS received 40 per cent of the town's photo radar revenue, with the town getting 40 per cent and the province 20.
Provincial guidelines require radar operators to tell the solicitor general what sites they monitor, why and how they monitor them, and the number of tickets they issue, Oyarzun said, and ITS has done so.
While she wouldn't comment on how ticket revenue was split between ITS, the town and the province, as the specifics were part a confidential contract, Oyarzun did say that the first two per cent of the town's share (to a maximum of $8,000 a year) goes toward its traffic safety initiative, which funds traffic safety campaigns around town. The fund cannot exceed $16,000 in any given year.
"The larger portion, as identified by policy, goes into capital reserves," she said.
Up to $250,000 of ticket cash goes into the town's capital reserves each year, based on a 2010 council decision. In April 2011 council also used ticket revenue to pay for a $3 million loan taken out for the community cultural centre.
O'Brien's group questioned who was ultimately in charge of the town's photo radar program, noting that provincial guidelines say it should be the police.
The RCMP has the last word when it comes to approving monitoring sites, said Staff Sgt. Mac Richards, head of the Morinville RCMP.
"The contractor didn't pick the sites," he said, in response to one of the group's allegations.
As specified in provincial guidelines, his department also ensures that ITS enforces speed limits in accordance with the town's traffic safety plan and specifies when they can operate – 24 hours a day, in this case.
"I don't set [their] work schedule," Richards said.
The town will soon release a map of the town's crosswalks, speed limits and photo radar zones as part of its traffic safety review, Oyarzun said. Public consultation should follow this summer, with any tweaks to photo radar kicking in by September.
Reports from ITS suggest that speeding is down in Morinville since they started photo radar, Bertschi said, but has yet to be eradicated.
"We've seen some instances where we've got [drivers going] 125 kilometres an hour going through the community," he said. "How's that safe on any level?"
